Fourth Wall Rising
by Crazyeight
Summary: What happens when the characters of Digimon find out that they're fictional television characters? How will they react when they are dragged into the realm of fan fiction? Prequal to the 'Fourth Wall' Series...


Disclaimer: I didn't own Digimon before it began; I don't own Digimon now, and I won't own Digimon long after the last episode airs.

Fourth Wall Rising

A Digimon Parody story by Crazyeight

Chapter One: **So it Begines…**

Where do the legends come from? The answer is simple. The legends come from a story. A story about children, partnered with creatures from another plain of existence with the ability to change into larger, more powerful creatures with the aid of these children. Together they face evil that many would consider beyond anything that the human mind could possibly imagine.

Ironically, it is from this imagination that the tales of that evil come from.

The story is laid out, with the characters, either willingly or unwillingly, being chosen for the tremendous duty of saving not one, but _two_ worlds from the darkness that threatens to devour them both, and through it all, all the struggle, all the sweat, tears, and sacrifices made, the children and their newfound friends and allies gain a new sense of self, and with that new discovery they are able to prevail against the seeming hopelessness of their situation.

In the face of their eventual self-realization, newfound strengths and friendships, the final goodbyes are forced to be made, and the characters part ways. Whether or not they will see each other again is not up to them, but up to a force higher than them, the one responsible for creating the legend in the first place. And should the pen that created the legend fall idle? Should the tale that sprung forth and captured the hearts of all those who lent an ear to it fall silent?

Why… then there are others who stand ready to take up the next part of the legend.

* * *

In the midst of a jungle like environment, a boy with large, brown hair, a pair of goggles strapped to his forehead, and a blue t-shirt with stars embroidered on the sleeves blinked in surprise and confusion.

_Okay…_ thought the boy, whose name was Tai Kamiya._ Would someone mind telling me what just happened here? The last thing that I remember was being in Myotismon's castle…_

"Tai? What just happened?"

Looking down at the voice that called his name, Tai Kamiya found himself looking at the familiar green eyes of a short, orange colored dinosaur named Agumon.

"I was just thinking the same thing, Agumon," said Tai. "One minute we're in Myotismon's castle and the next we're…" Tai frowned as he took note of the variations in the vegetation around him. Once, he wouldn't have been able to tell one plant from another, but in the adventures that he had in a place called the digital world, the same place that he met Agumon, his sense of perception had sharpened considerably. "Wherever _here_ is. Judging from the layout I'd say that we're probably still in the digital world."

Agumon took a moment to sniff the air, and shrugged.

"Yeah, I guess so. But where are we? And where are the others? And how did we even get here?"

"Let's save the billion question survey until _after_ we've found the others, okay? Now let's see…"

Pulling out his digivice from off his shorts, Tai activated the tracking system in an attempt to find any other digivice signals were located. At present, there were none…

_Hold it!_ Thought Tai as his digivice made a sound, and a small dot appeared on the screen, revealing the location of two separate signals.

"All right!" Exclaimed Tai in triumph. "I've got someone! Looks like they're not too far away. They're only south of us by a click!"

Agumon nodded his head and together the two of them headed off in the direction that the digivice indicated. After a moment of silence, Agumon turned to his partner.

"Tai? You still have to explain to me what a click is…"

Tai looked at his partner and sweat dropped, remembering that time when they returned to the digital world following their epic battle with a powered up Etemon and Agumon became MetalGreymon for the first time.

"Um… well… it's like this…" Tai scratched his cheekbone for inspiration as he looked up at the sky, a nervous grin appearing on his face.

The sound of a monstrous roar, and trees being uprooted broke the silence of the forest, preventing Tai from having to answer his comrade. A human scream filled the air and at it, Tai burst forth at a run.

"Let's go Agumon! That's probably one of the others! They sound like they're in trouble!"

"Wait for me, Tai!"

* * *

The giant crimson beetle known as Kuwagamon ripped up trees with its claws and pincers, snarling in frustration as it tried to get at the human and digimon that ran from it, but at the moment was failing to do so. Suddenly the human fell to the ground, probably exhausted from all the running that it had been forced to do, or maybe it had tripped. Whatever the reason, the chase was now coming to a close and Kuwagaomon let out a triumphant cry as it began to close in on its prey…

**"Pepper Breath!"**

Kuwagamon howled in pain as a fireball suddenly slammed into its side. Turning its head, Kuwagamon saw new prey, another human and a digimon. And they were willing to stand and fight for a change! So much the better. With a roar, Kuwagamon rushed forward, pincers opening wide to make short work of the newcomers.

* * *

Tai stood firm and gripped his digivice as he saw the first and oldest enemy of the Digidestined coming towards them. He had taken only a moment to assess the situation before ordering Agumon to intervene. He didn't recognize the human or digimon that Kuwagamon was chasing but at the moment that didn't matter. All he knew was that it was just another kid who needed help and he was more than willing to give it. Besides, for all he knew it might be the eight child that Gennai had been telling him and the others about.

Tai's eyes narrowed as Kuwagamon drew near, and his digivice glowed with the light of the heavens. A glow that was matched by Agumon.

"AGUMON! DIGIVOLVE TOOO…"

"GREYMON!"

Agumon grew in size, his color deepening as a great bony carapace with horns appeared on his face along with a series of blue stripes. As soon as the transformation ended, Agumon's new form of Greymon braced himself and caught Kuwagamon by his pincers, struggling against the beetles forward momentum before unleashing a Nova Blast at point blank range, causing Kuwagamon to fall back with a howl of pain. Tai took the moment of distraction to rush over to the fallen child as she… Tai blinked. _She!_ A girl with long, blonde hair, barely older than himself was lying on the ground, massaging her ankle as though it pained her. Next to her was a bird like digimon that bore some resemblance to Biyomon, only with red feathers instead of pink. Shaking his head, Tai stopped in front of the girl and grabbed her by the arm.

"C'mon!" He shouted. "We've got to get out of here!"

"Wha…! Owww! Hey! Don't be so rough…" the girl whined. Tai grimaced and began to move forward, forcing the seemingly limp girl to move with him.

"I'll bet it'll hurt worse if those two keep going at it like that, now let's…"

**"Nova Blast!"**

Tai stopped in his tracks as Greymon unleashed another fireball on Kuwagamon, and once more the insect collapsed to the ground, just barely missing Tai's foot as it landed. Tai turned pale and the girl that he was supporting chuckled.

"Almost put your foot into that one, huh?"

Tai frowned. This girl was _way_ too cool with what was going on around her. The way she sounded right now was as if she had no reason at all to be concerned with Kuwagamon.

Kuwagamon suddenly surged to his feet, snapping its pincers at Greymon and snarling, and then, in a move that surprised both Tai and Greymon, spoke.

"Hey! Tone down on the heat already will ya? I know that you guys are new at this but I mean, come on! This _isn't_ supposed to leave me crippled! It says so in my contract! And warn me the next time you're going to blast me like that! That way it'll give me time to have my stunt double take my place. Got it?"

Tai and Greymon exchanged confused glances before looking back at the Kuwagamon.

"Huh?" They both said in unison. Kuwagamon scoffed at them, before looking at Tai with what looked like a smirk.

"And _you_ said that you two didn't make a good tag team…"

Tai was just about to ask what the heck he was talking about when a voice echoed upon the air, loud and true for all to hear. It had the sound of authority to it, and as soon as Kuwagamon heard it he lowered his claws.

"CUT!"

Following the sound of the voice, Tai found two more humans, standing off to the side, one boy and one girl, both of them flipping through sheets of paper and mumbling to themselves. The girl that Tai was supporting detached herself from him and walked off to the side, her ankle no longer looking like it was hurting her. Tai looked around, completely and totally bewildered with the situation.

"Um… okay. Would someone care to clue me in on what's going on here?"

The other human boy was grumbling to himself, not bothering to answer Tai right away before fixing him with a glare and then turning to his female companion.

"I told you that this would happen. I was _warned_ that he'd be confused. And now he's messed things up and we'll have to start over."

"Hey!" Exclaimed the girl next to the boy. "Don't make this sound like it's _my_ fault! You wanted to start with Tai, and need I remind you that it was _you_ who uploaded him without consulting me? _I _wanted to go with Matt, but nooo… _you_ already had gotten some work done and you didn't want to go back and edit the…"

Tai blinked and tilted his head to the side before looking first at Greymon and then at the Kuwagamon, the latter of which was busy picking at his teeth with his crimson claws, completely relaxed as though he hadn't just been in a fight a few minutes ago. Tai's mind was awhirl with confusion. Briefly he recalled something that his friend Matt had said right before their encounter with Shellmon, when they had been trying to make use of the phone booths on the beach.

"_What planet did I die on?"_

Tai couldn't help but feel that expression fit his situation perfectly.

* * *

On a computer screen in a dimension seemingly far away, and at the same time closer than Tai realizes, a new entry appeared in a long list of titles.

_Digimon_.

* * *

5 


End file.
